Thank You Steve.I still have a couple of questions.... Do we still use the 1/2" felt behind the drivers like Ziggy suggested originally, or are these pieces of convoluted foam all we need? What about Poly-fill in the top of the chambers? Can the new passives be made by hand with the same surrounds you supplied in your kit? I have not glued these together yet and can wait if the info will be released soon. Sorry for all the questions, but an answer will help me decide which course to take.Thanks,John

If I remember correctly from my talk with Steve, the new passives are dual-articulating and/or dual-tuned. I don't think it's as simple as changing the mass of the PR. Of course, I've been wrong before

Question for Steve/Ziggy: Have you guys tried tuning the left and right side of the speaker differently? ie, different length port on the left/right sides, and perhaps keeping the original PR on the left and putting the new one on the right? Sorta same idea as offsetting a driver in a baffle to average out peaks in the response? Or perhaps this is un-necessary and/or would just screw up the tuning and sound?

I was just thinking this might be a happy medium for any in the mentioned 10% that like better the un-modified/stock version of the HDT.

[quote author=zinker link=1113323574/30#30 date=1117558859]Thank You Steve.I still have a couple of questions.... Do we still use the 1/2" felt behind the drivers like Ziggy suggested originally, or are these pieces of convoluted foam all we need? What about Poly-fill in the top of the chambers? Can the new passives be made by hand with the same surrounds you supplied in your kit? I have not glued these together yet and can wait if the info will be released soon. Sorry for all the questions, but an answer will help me decide which course to take.Thanks,John [/quote]

No, you do not need the felt. The foam replaces it.Poly-fill in the top chambers has also been replaced by foam.

The new passives start with the same surround which is glued to a 6 inch surround that is in turn glued to a 4.5 inch paper dome. The dome is supported by another specially shaped cap glued to the inside along with the appropriate weights.

[quote author=Falconer link=1113323574/15#29 date=1117540494]Perfect timing on the mods, I'm ready to cut and glue pvc into the port plate tonight (5-31-05). I'll have to check with Decware and see if the drivers shipped to me had the wax job. [/quote]

Unless I specifically say so over the phone prior to or after an order, the drivers will not be gel waxed but rather exactly as represented on the web site. I have waxed a few for people I've talked to about doing so, but otherwise my plans are to simply replace the current model with it when we start building the HDT's this way as standard.

At this point that will probably happen in October directly after the 2005 Zenfest here at Decware. The information and required parts are being made available now because we know many of you will jump on the mod and report the results. If they are all positive it will of course make the debut at the Zenfest something to look forward to. If the reports come back negative then we won't take it into production. That said, I'm betting my ear's reputation on an overwhelmingly positive report. I'd hate to have wasted my time and consider our customer's time to be equally valuable.

Thanks for the quick reply Steve.Since the new passives are a completely different animal, I think I will use the old ones for the time being. I will ,however, use the new foam interior scheme along with my non- modified drivers until I hear from others about thier experiences. This project has been in works for so long now and my amp is just sitting gathering dust. I MUST HAVE MUSIC NOW! I hope the new passives are not too expensive.John

Well I've been listening with my more powerful Peavey SS amp. The bass is certainly different. The cone motion is more regulated so the drivers dont move as much. I think the passives are activated more. I'm willing to try the new ones. So far so good. Also on certain songs an upper midrange peak is more noticable with the new tuning. I assume the new driver coating deals with this. And like I said, they do image better.

Do you have the first generation of the Fostex driver where the socket is painted black and bonded to the pole piece?I was wondering if you have applied any felt to the socket? Can a person do this without removing the bonded socket?

The HDT Alternate tuning kit is now available for those of you who have been following this forum.

It includes:

1) The additional port lengths and couplings used to lengthen the original ports.

2) The newly designed passive radiators

3) The pre-cut foam pieces that replace the felt and or polyfill.

The cost is $126.00 for the kit and it will do both speakers.

It can be ordered ONLY from our master catalog or by phone.

The gel wax treatment of the fostex drivers is optional. Those who wish to try it may send their drivers to DECWARE and I will personally modify them.

Cost to gel wax drivers that are sent in will be $50. for the pair.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

1) There is nothing wrong with the original HDT speakers.2) These tweaks are not a FIX.3) These tweaks, also known as the Alternate Tuning, have been made available to forum members who like to modify things. They are not mentioned or listed anywhere in the HDT pages on the site.4) The Alternately tuned HDT's will be debuted at this years DECWARE ZEN FEST in October. Afterwards, the HDT pages on the site will be updated to reflect the changes and we will introduce these changes into production. At the same time the price of the HDT will increase slightly.

A while back I was speaking to Ziggy about these tweaks and he mentioned that the passive radiators would be "added" to the existing ones foam surround. He said removing the foam and glue from the wood is just too much work.

My question is how should I go about removing the old passives? Do I have to salvage anything? Or can I just cut those ones off and strip away all the foam and glue? I just don't want to fuck anything up.

BTW, Steve. Your focus on this part of your buisness is much appreciated and looking forward to my new "Sluts."

You don't need any of the old passives. If you take a hobby knife (X-acto) and just find the thru hole for the passives and cut the foam surround along the hole, it will leave whats glued to the cabinet in place. you'll then glue the new passive to the old (whats left of it) passive.

If you try to remove the passive and it tears the apart. it won't be smooth enough to adhire or seal with out removing it back down the the wood itself.

Brad,Sluts was the nickname given to the earliest designs of what is now the HDT cabinet. They named them "slut" cause just about anything (driver) you put in em sounded good! Did I get that right Bob?